OPPORTUNITIES for pubs, clubs, hotels and restaurants to benefit from the major events coming to Scotland next year were highlighted again last week by the new chairman of hospitality industry charity HIT Scotland.
Taking the helm of the organisation as Stephen Carter OBE stepped down after 12 years, Paddy Crerar said with the Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup and Year of Homecoming fast-approaching, there has never been a more exciting time to work in the Scottish hospitality industry.
His comments came just days after more than 700 travel agents and tour operators from 40 different countries flocked to VisitScotland’s Expo to see the very best that Scotland has to offer.
Our country’s hospitality is world-renowned.
But, as VisitScotland chair Mike Cantlay pointed out, the world doesn’t owe us a tourism industry. It takes hard work to convert major events into real benefits for individual businesses.
That standards – both service and product – continue to rise across the sector will go a long way to helping operators reap the rewards from such events.
As recent issues of SLTN show, there’s also been no shortage of investment in new and existing premises.
As Scotland prepares to ‘welcome the world’ next year, the opportunities are there for the taking, and it seems the trade is more than ready to seize them.
